


Sunrise, Sunset

by alex_kade



Series: Monstas [2]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Blood, Character Background, Character Death, M/M, No Porn, Shownu and Hyungwon make a brief appearance, Sick Character, Vampires, but only from his human form, he's gotta die to come back as a vampire guyz!, mostly Wonho and Minhyuk, so i guess this is a character birth, sorry if you wanted porn, there's only a little slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 17:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6816073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_kade/pseuds/alex_kade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To become a vampire, one must first live long enough to die. This is the story of how Minhyuk became a part of Shownu's clan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunrise, Sunset

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took so long, guys! I was having a little bit of a crisis about my writing ability. Special thanks to [Lily_Zen](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lily_zen/pseuds/lily_zen) for kicking my ass and setting my head back on straight.

**Lee Min Hyuk, 22 - 1968**

Lee Min Hyuk, when human, had always been forced to live in the shadows, his own genetic structure turning him into a nocturnal being directly from birth. He was brought into the world a natural albino, a rarity in the present, nearly unheard of back in the forties when the country was in constant turmoil. With his light blond hair and eyes so devoid of color that they shone an almost translucent grey, he was a target for prejudice from the very start, often being mistaken for a mixed child of American blood in a time when the people of Korea were struggling with the concept of US occupancy. 

His appearance made matters hard on his parents, prompting rumors to fly about his mother being unfaithful to his father. It labeled them as outcasts, but despite that they still pushed forward and tried their best to raise Minhyuk as loving, devoted parents. 

That, in itself, was no easy task, forcing them to live under special circumstances to accommodate the fact that their son’s skin and eyes were so very sensitive to the sun’s rays. It was a constant battle for them, making sure Minhyuk didn’t go out without being fully clothed, making him wear a mask over his face and a hat over his head to protect his eyes. Too young to understand why he couldn’t just dart out to play on his own without the protective layers of clothing, there were many times when he would slip past them to spend hours in the daylight, later bringing suffering upon himself and yet more onto his parents in the aftermath of his exuberance. Being laid up with burns for half his childhood certainly did nothing to help ease the burden that caring for him entailed, and eventually it all became too much for his well-meaning parents to bear.

So it was that after eight years of being with a family who desperately tried to accept him as their son, but found themselves at a point where they simply weren’t capable of handling the hardships he presented for them anymore, Minhyuk was handed over to one of the children’s homes that had begun to spring up around the country. It was a defining moment for him, one that taught him the true meaning of abandonment that stretched beyond his general inability to maintain friendships due to his unique condition. It made him hyper-aware of his loneliness during an age when no child should have been subjected to such melancholy emotions, but it also gave him a unique perspective on humanity, allowing him to see that same loneliness in others. It drew him towards the children of actual mixed race at the home, a group in which he was more generally accepted; and while it was still very difficult for him to form lasting bonds with any of them due to his inability to accompany them outside, he at least wasn’t alone anymore when it came to facing prejudice. 

That was what he had hoped, anyway, but for a child like Minhyuk, hopes were often shattered. There were a few outspoken children of the mixed blood group who didn’t want him mingling with them because he _wasn’t_ like them, not exactly. He was full Korean despite how he looked, which meant he couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to be born with ‘the wrong blood.’ Sometimes they were cruel to him because of that and pushed him away, but Minhyuk refused to let that attitude deter him for too long. Seeing this pain his peers felt only inspired him to try harder to bring smiles to their faces, to help them not feel the loneliness he so often suffered from. Instead of becoming sullen and outcast, he decided to adapt a generally sunny disposition towards life and everyone around him, a contagious sort of attitude that eventually brought joy and acceptance from the other children at long last.

Camaraderie, once he’d finally found it, was something Minhyuk wanted to cling to with all the desperation of a man dangling off a cliff’s edge. Unwilling to lose the friends he had just made, he did his best to drape himself with as much clothing as possible so he could go out with them in the daylight, trying his best to live like a normal boy. During rainy season or the winter months it wasn’t unbearable for him, but during the summer when it was too hot to sport all those layers for long, he always wound up shedding the protective gear in favor of feeling the sun kiss his sweat-slicked skin. 

Then he would burn. Even if he was only out for a short period of time, his too-pale skin would turn red and painful, after days of which he would peel and have to start all over again, never holding a tan because his body simply lacked the melanin to form one. It was worth it to him, though, worth the pain he had to endure if it meant he didn’t have to be alone for long.

He lived that way for another eight years until he was old enough to leave the home at sixteen, just missing the bulk of the Korean War. That was the one both lucky and unlucky aspect about always living in poor health–he wasn’t sent to fight because he would’ve been useless on the field, but it also meant he was given no formal training in any particular field that would ease him into the working world upon his entry into adult life. During the time when Hyungwon was dying from his war wounds and subsequently getting turned by Wonho, Minhyuk was living mostly on the streets, doing whatever odd jobs he could find just to be able to get a meal every once in awhile. A good deal of that involved going out in the fields during harvest season, meaning more time spent out in the sun, which meant more long days of not being able to do much afterwards but lay around until his burned skin healed.

Eventually he found a position that actually suited his needs, an elderly woman who had often seen him smiling through his pains taking pity on him and letting him transcribe letters for her husband’s business. She allowed him to reside in the workroom, but was strict with his schedule, making him sleep during the height of the afternoon and not beginning his official shift until evening had set in. He would work for several hours, swiftly but diligently, and would always wind up finishing well before the morning light would hit again. With the rest of the household asleep and silent by that time, he would often venture out to try to alleviate his boredom, just wandering in the moonlight and singing soft tunes under his breath.

That was how Wonho had found him. It was late, much later than when the three vampires typically set out to feed, which meant there weren’t too many options available to him. He had been about ready to head to the docks to settle for one of the salt-tasting fisherman out of sheer desperation, but then came Minhyuk, strolling out of the shadows looking as comfortable in the night as any vampire would, head tilted up at the stars while he sang some nonsense rhyme about the moon. It had been full that night, its light gleaming down to reflect off the boy’s golden hair and _so_ pale skin. When he tilted his head just right, his grey eyes looked nearly silver, and there was a moment when Wonho questioned whether he was truly looking at a person or some other impossible creature that existed outside the realm of both human andvampire.

“Oh, hello,” Minhyuk greeted upon spotting Wonho lurking on the street corner, entirely unafraid. In fact, he seemed genuinely pleased to find another person lingering in the darkness, and with a bright smile on his face, he practically skipped right on over to the vampire.

Wonho eyed him up and down, caught somewhere between baffled and amused. “You’re very brave, approaching a stranger like this,” he commented, a slight smirk on his face. “I could be a monster, you know.”

Minhyuk’s smile grew wider. “And I could be an evil spirit, but I don’t see _you_ running away. Do I not look frightening?”

“Don’t I?” Wonho stepped further into the light where Minhyuk could see his red eyes. They weren’t glowing bright like they did when he was angry or when he was charming his prey, and he didn’t extend his fangs, but even without that, he still looked like a demon.

Minhyuk’s smile dropped, but for some reason he still didn’t run. He didn’t even look afraid. Just...curious, and possibly a little sad. “Oh, you’re like me,” he stated. “Your color is wrong. Does the sun hurt you, too?”

Wonho blinked for a moment. Was this tone...pity? He couldn’t remember ever receiving pity from a human before, not since he was turned. They would always try to run, or try to fight, calling him a devil until he could capture their minds and wipe them clean of anything but a pleasurable sort of confusion. Not even Hyungwon had accepted him as easily as this.

“It does,” he replied softly, marveling at the boy who stood looking at him with eyes that spoke of nothing but compassion and understanding. Then, in an abrupt instant, the sad sincerity in those eyes vanished and was replaced by the most brilliant smile Wonho had ever seen in all his years of life.

“Well, I guess that means we’ll have to be friends then,” Minhyuk declared. “There’s no point in both of us wandering around in the dark by ourselves. Maybe we can fight off monsters and evil spirits together.”

He knew it was wrong, but Wonho couldn’t help but go along with the boy’s enthusiasm. The poor thing was clearly so utterly starved for attention that he was willing to latch onto anybody who would give him the time of day. With Wonho being “like him,” as Minhyuk had assumed, the instant attachment was that much harder to deny.

Wonho decided it wouldn’t hurt to walk with the boy for a little while, learning his name and a bit about his condition. Minhyuk had explained it in all of two sentences, waving it away as if it were nothing. He didn’t ask why Wonho’s eyes were red, simply assumed it was a similar issue with faulty pigment, and moved onto blurting out all manner of other things. He spoke of how he loved snow, but hated being cold so it always caused a bit of a dilemma for him come winter. When he was young he used to fold paper into little animal shapes and make them play with one another. Heights were not something he feared, but the thought of falling made him nervous. His favorite flowers were yellow camellias because they could bloom in the winter to remind him of sunny days even when it was cloudy and cold, and subsequently his favorite color was yellow. 

He also asked a lot of questions between his ramblings, wondering about Wonho’s preferences and what he did for fun. In return, Wonho had to lie about several things to dance around his vampiric nature, but he tried to be honest as much as possible. He felt he at least owed that much to this poor young man who was just minutes away from becoming a vampire’s dinner.

“You really don’t go out during the day, do you?” Minhyuk asked at one point out of nowhere, interrupting his own conversation. Wonho raised a questioning brow at that, watching as the albino’s eyes danced up the vamp’s bare, pale arms. “Your skin is too perfect. Not like mine. I go out when I shouldn’t. I don’t tan, but I get spots.”

He pulled up his sleeve to reveal patches of freckles here and there on his otherwise porcelain skin. A larger one was growing on the back of his shoulder blade that he poked at subconsciously before hiding it again. He had a wistful look on his face as he tugged the fabric back down to cover himself, his long, blond lashes fanned nearly against his cheek as his eyes trailed along his arm. It made him look like a faery creature straight out of a children’s book, and Wonho couldn’t pull his eyes off him.

“I think you’re beautiful,” the vampire whispered, his instincts kicking in, suddenly driven by desire for this odd boy that had swept him off a lonely street corner. 

When Minhyuk looked up, startled by the admission, Wonho’s eyes were already gleaming, gone from a dull cherry to a candied crimson, drawing the boy in the second their gazes locked. Wonho reached a hand up and stroked it gently down Minhyuk’s cheek. “So beautiful.”

Minhyuk nodded slightly, his eyelids fluttering to half mast as he wavered a bit on his feet. Wonho was prepared for that, reaching out to grip the boy’s arms and to pull him forward gently, closing the space between them. With loving guidance, he tilted Minhyuk’s head and pressed it against his shoulder, and only then did the fangs come out, thirsting to pierce soft flesh and revel in the feel of warm blood pulsing over his tongue. As hungry as he was though, as animalistic as the demon in him was telling him to be, Wonho did not give into the temptation to simply rip the boy’s throat out and drain him dry. 

He was caring, mindful not to bite too deeply, taking precautions to insure every drop of blood slipped into his mouth instead of dripping down Minhyuk’s neck to stain his shirt collar. It was hard, possibly one of the most difficult feedings he’d ever had to control. Minhyuk tasted of golden sunlight and sweet sugarcane, his blood flooding into Wonho’s system and energizing him with a purity he had never come across before. His flavor was a drug of positivity and endless smiles and hopeful futures, but spiced with a hint of darker days and hidden sadness, of loneliness pushed aside in favor of optimistic goals. Minhyuk’s soul was perfection caught in a flawed shell, a brilliant work of art that very few would ever appreciate. If Wonho were a lesser vampire, a lesser man, he would have coveted that soul and taken it into himself entirely, wanting to fill himself with it and hold onto it into eternity.

With a ragged gasp, he pulled himself back, withdrawing his fangs and taking a moment to lap up the slight mess he had made on Minhyuk’s neck. He was panting hard with the effort to hold onto his humanity, watching closely as the twin puncture wounds began to seal themselves in response to his saliva. That was good, but the weight of the boy was heavy in Wonho’s arms, Minhyuk completely lost to the hypnotic thrall of Wonho’s charm and the lull of a vampire’s intoxicating poison coursing through his veins. 

Wonho rocked him back a little, taking a moment to stroke a hand down his silky, pale hair before hefting him up into his arms. With most people he would’ve found a comfortable spot to lay them down right where he had fed, then he would fade into the shadows where he could watch over them until they would awaken, confused and yet somehow pleased at the same time, unconcerned with why and how they had wound up on the ground. The recovery process typically happened within a quarter of an hour, an amount of time that would be trivial to a human in the grand scheme of things, but that was when Wonho had maintained better control. He hadn’t done as well with Minhyuk, had gotten greedy and taken a bit too much of the boy’s blood to feel safe about leaving him on the street.

Treating him as though he were a precious, fragile doll, Wonho carried him home to a dark little room in a small little print shop. It was exactly as Minhyuk had described it, the windows covered so that he wouldn’t be exposed to the harsh rays of the sun. There was almost nothing personal to speak of inside it, nothing that Minhyuk hadn’t made by himself, but he had done his best to liven the place up with colored paper cutouts taped to the walls and little tissue streamers dangling from the ceiling. It fit the boy perfectly, all bright displays standing out among lonely shadows. It made Wonho want to smile through hurt-filled tears.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into Minhyuk’s ear as he settled him onto the small mattress in the corner of the room. He pulled back and placed a featherlight kiss on the boy’s forehead, carded his fingers through his hair once more, then got up to leave, to return to his own life of darkness, but one in which he had a family to love him and protect him from the melancholy of the world around him. To Minhyuk, Wonho would exist as nothing more than the memory of a dream, just a gentle breeze inside his mind that told him he was beautiful.

That was how it was supposed to be anyway, but Wonho had tasted of ambrosia and found that he couldn’t quite stay away. He wasn’t addicted per se, did not purposely seek out Minhyuk every time he needed to feed, but on days when he was feeling a little lonely or a little down, he knew that simply being around Minhyuk would lift his spirits. The boy was just so full of happy energy that even without feeding off of his blood he could bring a smile to Wonho’s face.

“There you are,” Minhyuk greeted in a huff around the tenth time the vampire had set out to ‘accidentally’ stumble into him. “I haven’t seen you in forever. I was starting to think you didn’t like me anymore.”

Wonho’s eyes widened. This should not have been happening. Minhyuk’s mind was supposed to have been erased of all their previous outings. Each time they met, it was supposed to have been for the first time in Minhyuk’s memory. Yet there he was, treating Wonho like an old friend who had forgotten to visit.

“You _are_ real, right?” Minhyuk continued, standing up to press a hand against Wonho’s chest, confirming the vampire’s presence for himself. He snorted out a laugh. “If not, I have the best imaginary friend ever. I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe I just got lonely enough to will you into existence. Did I will you into existence? I can’t remember. I don’t remember anything except that you’re my friend and I miss you when you’re gone. I don’t really have any other friends. Maybe I’m just going crazy, but that’s okay if I am. I promise I won’t hold it against you.”

Wonho’s heart constricted in his chest. He had messed up, messed up so badly he wasn’t entirely certain how to fix it. It hadn’t even occurred to him that his constant presence in Minhyuk’s life would cause a sort of muscle memory, a memory lost to the mind but encased in the heart, a knowledge that somebody existed out there who did, in fact, love him. An emotion that strong, one the boy so desperately needed to feel, it wasn’t something that Wonho could completely wipe away. He had taken things too far with Minhyuk, and it needed to end.

“Minhyuk,” he sighed, a sympathetic look gracing his features. “I–”

“–Don’t!” Minhyuk snapped. He stared at him, eyes welling up with tears that he tried to keep from spilling over, but to no avail. Frustrated with himself, he ducked his head and scrubbed furiously at his cheeks with his sleeve, his anguish bubbling out of him in the form of choked laughter. “I must be the most pathetic person alive. Even my own imaginary friend wants to leave me.”

“Oh, Minhyukie.” Wonho stepped forward, reaching out to the young man who at first flinched away, then gave in and let the vampire fold him into his embrace. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to leave you. That isn’t what I want at all, but we can’t do this anymore. I’m not good for you. I don’t deserve you. I’m a devil destined to Hell and you’re an angel sent from Heaven.”

“Angels must be very lonely people,” Minhyuk sniffled into his chest, his fingers clutching at Wonho’s shirt.

The vampire turned and kissed the blonde’s head. “Yes, they are.”

They stayed that way a bit, just hugging under the dim light of a crescent moon until Wonho felt he had overextended his visit. It would’ve been merciful for him to charm Minhyuk once more, to make him forget, but the blonde begged him not to. He didn’t want to forget. He didn’t want to wonder about the hole in his heart that would have no context, no reason for existing. A sweet goodbye he could deal with, a parting that he could remember and move on from, just another person he could stash away in his list of people who had left him behind. He could cope with that, he was used to that. It would hurt, but it would be better than feeling the bitter sting of recent abandonment and having no memory as to why.

Wonho, on the other hand, was not accustomed to losing people, not since he had been turned. In his vampiric state, he hadn’t allowed himself to become close to anybody but Shownu and Hyungwon, and they should have been enough. They’d _always_ been enough. Shownu was gentle and quiet, all soft smiles and comforting words, but he could also be sullen and closed off on his dark days. Hyungwon was sometimes playful in short bursts and was good at offering support with small gestures, but he was rarely affectionate in the physical sense and was more often than not lost inside his own thoughts. Things were different with Minhyuk though. Wonho had been introduced to a light shining through a void, a soul capable of glowing all on its own even in the darkest hours. Without him, there was nowhere to turn when the estate got too quiet or when pensive emotions ran too heavy. Some days it would be downright suffocating.

In the near two years that had passed since Wonho had parted ways with the strange boy, he had thought about him constantly, had struggled at times not to track him down during those suffocating days, knowing if he did that he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to steal a taste of Minhyuk’s sweet nectar blood. It was rough, but he really had no intentions of ever seeing the boy again. It seemed that the Fates had different plans for him, though.

One evening just as the sun had said its final goodbye to the horizon and Wonho was waking up to start his night, he _heard_ him. It wasn’t a clear voice inside his mind like that of Hyungwon’s or Shownu’s, but Wonho could sense that Minhyuk was crying his name into the rising darkness as clearly as the moonlight pierced through the window. The call was sad, desperate, and so very, _very_ afraid that Wonho couldn’t help but respond to it. With as much haste as his powers allowed him, he dashed out the door, instincts drawing him straight towards the boy who had brought him so much happiness for such a miserably short amount of time.

“You came,” Minhyuk smiled weakly as Wonho reached his side. He was outside just as he always was in the years prior, but nothing about the situation was as Wonho remembered. He was sitting down with his back pressed to the wall of a local hospital, looking as though he could barely keep his head tilted up to gaze at his friend. He was pale, which was odd to say considering he was _always_ pale, but his skin looked so thin now that Wonho was afraid it would tear at the simplest touch. His cheeks were sunken in, his grey eyes hollow of all the exuberance that once shone in them. It didn’t take an empath to know that Minhyuk was dying. He looked little more than a walking corpse, and it tore at Wonho’s soul to see him that way.

“Oh, no,” the vampire muttered as he squatted down beside his once-friend. He touched Minhyuk’s shoulder, and the instant the soothing contact was made, the blonde burst into tears and leaned into Wonho’s chest. 

“I’m sorry. I know I wasn’t supposed to see you again, but I didn’t want to die alone,” Minhyuk sobbed. “Please don’t let me die here alone.”

Wonho held him tightly for several long minutes, burying his nose in the boy’s hair to breathe in his scent, and debated on what to do. What little actual humanity remained inside him told him to simply do as asked, to be the friend that Minhyuk had never really had, to simply visit beside his deathbed at night until the time came when he could peacefully slip away to wherever it was that angels-on-Earth were supposed to go. It would’ve been the proper thing to do, to let the boy escape his suffering of twenty-two years, to let him be free of the cruelties of the world. He didn’t deserve to be doomed to Hell. An angel wasn’t meant to reside in a house of devils.

“I can save you.”

The words formed on his lips without his bidding, the vampire in him winning over the human soul. Wonho _wanted_ him, wanted to drain the last of his light and fill it with darkness. He wanted Minhyuk for his smile, for his energy, for his laughter, for his curiosity, for his drive to push through everything that was painful and wrong with the world. He wanted a new son, a new brother, a new companion, a new pet to love. He wanted everything that made up the core of Lee Min Hyuk, and wanted whatever changes may come with the addition of demon’s blood flowing through his veins. In that moment, Wonho was a vampire through and through. His selfish side had won.

Minhyuk pulled back just enough to look into his friend’s eyes, his face tearstained and puffy as he hiccuped out a desperate, “How?”

With nothing to lose now, Wonho confessed his sinful existence to the dying young man in his arms. He retained his humanity enough to be truthful, to explain some of the darker aspects of being a vampire. It didn’t stop him from buttering up the advantages though. The devil, the con, the charmer inside of him, it was just so natural to flip that switch when in the face of such deep temptation, and so very difficult to turn it off. There were no lies, but there had been brushed-over downsides coupled with persuasive truths, ones that no dying man could possibly resist. Death was too permanent, too mysterious, and far too soon for someone as young as Minhyuk. Caught in the face of it, the boy made his own choice by his own words, but it was a decision that Wonho had admittedly persuaded him to take. 

Despite that, when Minhyuk spoke, his words still surprised the vampire. He didn’t say, “I don’t want to die.” That was the logical response. Instead he pushed back from Wonho’s chest, shaking either from fear or physical exhaustion or both, and asked with all sincerity, “If I do this, you’ll stay with me forever?”

The question was enough to snap Wonho back into real sanity for a moment, to see the young man clinging to him, begging for nothing more than to be accepted, to be loved. The red gleam that had crept into the vampire’s eyes with his growing excitement faded, softening his expression as he offered Minhyuk the saddest of smiles.

“You’ll be mine, Minhyukie,” he promised, “mine and ours. You’ll have a home and a family for as long as you want to stay with us.”

Minhyuk nodded. “Then that’s what I want.”

He turned his head, exposing his long, thin neck to the vampire that held him, trusting him completely. The invitation had been sent, permission had been granted, and it made Wonho powerless to go against its call. There were no more words laced with poisoned honey, no tricks of the mind, no games to be played. There was only blood, the only thing that truly mattered in a vampire’s world, a need to take it in and send it back out, thriving off of it and using it as a means to spread their seed. It wasn’t a matter of life and death for them, it was a matter of death and life. Minhyuk was dying, Wonho drinking deeply, ridding him of everything that was tainted and everything that was pure, leaving him with a heart too empty to beat to any natural time. It sped up and slowed down, stuttered and tripped, each dull thud echoing like a thunderclap inside the vampire’s ears. Still he continued, taking everything, draining Minhyuk dry until with one last, desperate lurch, his heart finally fell still. 

Moving quickly before it would be too late to bring the boy back, Wonho turned his attention to his own wrist, biting into it enough to allow for a swift flow of blood to fill his mouth. With his own taste on his tongue, he shifted Minhyuk in his arms, letting his head fall back into the crook of his elbow, his lifeless lips parted just right for what Wonho needed to do as if the boy was still extending the invitation even in death. The vampire leaned forward, bringing his mouth closer to Minhyuk’s until he sealed their lips together, pouring his demon’s blood in and forcing it to trickle down the boy’s throat. 

Becoming a vampire was not a pretty process. When ingested, vampire blood was the equivalent of taking an adrenaline shot straight to the chest. The smallest amount could send a healthy human into cardiac arrest within seconds; on a dead human, it could jumpstart their system into working again. On a dead and drained human, it would take over their system entirely. The process was _not_ pain-free. 

Minhyuk didn’t notice the moment his heart began to beat again, his brain function still temporarily switched off until the new blood could start to flow properly through his body. If he had been awake he would’ve said it felt like a horse had kicked him in the ribs, and he would be sore for another day following his revival as if he really _had_ been kicked. The effect was that strong and violent, a symbolic rebirth into the world as not a human but a nightmarish creature that thrived on the lifeforce of others.

Wonho wasted no time drawing in another mouthful of blood and feeding it to his soon-to-be protege, much like a mother bird would feed its young. He repeated the process many times over, forcing more and more of it into Minhyuk’s system until the boy returned to life enough to truly begin swallowing on his own. It would only take a little more before–

–Minhyuk’s chest rose and he let out a sound that might have been a cry if he weren’t too weak to emit such a noise. Instead, it came out as a gasped whimper, a response to what Wonho knew was the illusion of molten lava being pumped through his veins. 

“Here, Minhyukie, you need to drink,” Wonho coaxed, bringing his bleeding wrist to the other’s red-stained lips. “It’ll be over soon if you drink.”

Trembling all over, tears escaping from beneath closed eyelids, Minhyuk did as he was told, struggling at first through his weakness and his pain and simply trying breathe. As more of the blood infiltrated his system, however, he began taking longer draws, his body craving the poison even though it was tearing him apart inside. His tremors increased to small seizures, escalating to the point where he jerked so violently in Wonho’s arms that he nearly ripped the vampire’s wrist apart with only his still-human teeth, his cries muffled by the hold he had on Wonho’s flesh.

“A little more, just a little more,” Wonho continued to encourage, ignoring his own pain in light of what he knew his protege was feeling. He was beginning to grow weak himself, his hold slipping as the boy writhed in his grasp, but it wasn’t enough yet. The cancer that had spread throughout Minhyuk’s body had ravaged him from the outside in, blemishing his fair skin and eating away at everything inside that made him tick. Thus was Wonho’s burden, to gift the boy with enough of his own life to make what was damaged whole again, a process that would leave the vampire tired and utterly vulnerable, but it was not something Wonho feared. It was a burden he had agreed to take on as a child of Shownu, a promise that he would only turn those who were already on the brink of death; and because of the dangers said promise held for Shownu and his kin, it was one that the Grand Sire readily looked out for.

Strong, familiar hands caught Wonho up just as he was starting to tip, holding him back from the dizziness that was blackening his vision. 

“That’s enough, Wonho,” Shownu’s gentle voice instructed, his fingers already moving down Wonho’s arm where he could safely pry it away from Minhyuk’s clenched jaw.

“He was so sick,” Wonho murmured, a quiet protest, but he lacked the strength to do anything more to halt his sire’s ministrations.

“It’s enough.”

Shownu shifted, sliding out from behind his protege so Hyungwon could take his place, the younger vamp having seemingly materialized out of nowhere to help his own sire. Freed from the duty of having to hold Wonho up, it left Shownu more able to wrestle Minhyuk off Wonho’s wrist, a process that was always difficult with a newly-turning vamp. Minhyuk had reached the point where the excruciating pain was being masked by the power of new life, where he could literally feel his body healing itself, becoming stronger, pushing away the sickness. That need to distance himself from death was driving his thoughts now, ridding him of his sanity, locking him into an almost animalistic frenzy that he would remain lost in for a few days to come; or, that’s the way most fledglings reacted, anyway.

Instead, he only cried when Shownu finally worked Wonho’s arm from between his teeth, an unusually passive response for a baby vampire. They had been expecting a struggle, to have to hold him back as he lunged forward for more blood, ready to consume his own sire whole if allowed. There was none of that from Minhyuk though. He simply curled down into himself and sobbed quietly, wrapping his arms tightly around his body, entrapping himself in a cocoon of solace. 

“Shhh, shhhh, Minhyukie, it’s okay now,” Wonho cooed, reaching a hand out to stroke his fingers through his new protege’s hair. “You’re going to be alright. We’re going to take care of you. All of us. We’re your family now, okay? Shownu, Hyungwon and I. We’re your family.”

A family. It was all Minhyuk had ever really wanted since he had been abandoned at eight years old. It had taken fourteen more years and nearly dying in the street at the back of a crowded hospital to finally find one again, but none of that mattered now. Neither did it matter that they were vampires, monsters from horror stories told to frighten children from the night. All that mattered to Minhyuk was that he had finally been accepted. After all those years, he was finally going home.

_~Kkeut~_

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus Fan Art from the very talented Seon Muriya! Get [commissions](http://seonmuriya.tumblr.com/commission) from her. She's good.


End file.
